


The Good Son

by Starralyse



Category: Days of Our Lives
Genre: Coming Out, Coming of Age, Gen, Teenage Drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-22
Updated: 2015-02-22
Packaged: 2018-03-14 13:29:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3412364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starralyse/pseuds/Starralyse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As his parent's marriage crumbles, teenage Sonny is on the verge of coming out. Sonny thinks that if he plays the good son and doesn't create any waves, everything will be ok.</p><p>Family story. Snippet. One-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Good Son

Since he was a young child, his parents had often told Sonny the story of how he'd been the miracle that brought their family back together. When he was younger he'd always liked to hear it because it made him feel more special. 

 

The twins were the popular ones; they were smart, funny, and full of schemes. Most of the kids in the neighbourhood wanted to be friends with them. But they kept to a select crowd, and even Sonny was locked out of their secret meetings. They told him that he was too little, and too annoying to be in their club, and when he tried to sneak into their room to see what they were doing, they got angry and said he should stop following them around _everywhere_ and stop being a pest.

 

His brother Alex was the cool one. Almost an adult, Alex could come and go as he pleased. When the twins got angry at Sonny, Alex would the one to pick him up and take him to _his_ room, as if it wasn't too much trouble having Sonny around chattering to him about what he liked and what happened at school. He also never seemed to mind when Sonny touched his things. Alex was also the first person to call him Sonny, instead of Jackson. It first started when Sonny was thirteen and had started to grow facial hair. Alex said that he looked like Sonny Corleone from _The Godfather Part Three_.

 

Sonny'd liked it and it stuck.

 

His mom and dad were arguing now, almost all of the time. His dad was negotiating property deals on behalf of a consortium of oil millionaires and it took up most of his time. He was rarely at home anymore, and when he arrived it was late, long after Sonny had already gone to bed.

 

Sonny stayed up anyway, and waited for a crack of light to appear under his door and to see the shadow of his father's feet travel past the doorway. Sometimes his Dad would look in on him and see him laying awake in the dark. He'd sit by the side of Sonny's bed and flick his hair back from his forehead and tell him to go to sleep.

 

Sonny was sporting a bit of a Neo-Goth look now, and had grown his fringe long, brushed to one side so it covered half of his face. He'd gotten his tongue pierced, too, but when his mother had seen it, she'd been furious and demanded he take the piercing out. Dad had made fun of it, and that had started another raging argument between them.

 

Sonny'd taken out the piercing and cut his hair short soon after that.

 

After school, his mom waited for him when he came home. If her smile was a little too bright and she hugged him like she was trying to squeeze the air out of him, Sonny would just pretend that it was normal. He would ignore the tinge of alcohol on her breath and pretend that he never noticed the unsteadiness of her walk. 

 

Most of the time it was just the two of them in the house, because the twins were always going out with their friends or girlfriends. Sometimes it made him angry that they were always leaving his Mom alone with only him for company, because he had to do his homework.

 

Even _worse_ , was when she'd coyly ask him whether there wasn't some girl that _he_ was interested in, too, and he didn't know what to say.

 

Sometimes Sonny would catch her staring outside the window, and her eyes would tear up. She claimed it was the sun; it was so always so bright in Dubai, she said she needed to wear sunglasses inside the house. She said she sometimes missed the rain in Salem, and the smell of the wet earth and leaves. Once she said she missed the freezing cold.

 

One day he found her crying in a huddle on the floor in the kitchen, and she said it was because she was trying to make pancakes with maple syrup but couldn't find a shop here that sold it. They tried them with the Fig Jelly she bought from the market instead, and even though they tasted a bit strange to Sonny, he told her that he liked it better, just so that she would smile again.

 

  

In Dubai, everything here feels a little unreal, a little pretend, especially him. He'll look in the mirror and see this person who has good grades and neatly clipped (boring) hair whom he doesn't recognise. His parents are proud of him. He is a good boy.

 

They don't know that he's gay. He hasn't told anyone.

 

Sometimes it feels like he's sitting on a secret that is so large it could blow his family apart. He wishes that he never heard the story of how his birth brought their family together. It makes him feel as if he is responsible for it. He wishes that he didn't care.

 

Sonny thinks that if he can last a year without telling anyone that he is gay, it will be better, because things have to be better a year from now, don't they? All he has to do is wait it out, and stuff those feelings down; be the good son, and everything will be okay.

 

In the end, he blurts it two weeks later, just like that.

 

Because big secrets are like that. They won't stay hidden.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I believe that canon on the show was that Sonny's coming out actually helped to heal the rift in his parents' marriage. You can correct me if I am remembering that wrong.


End file.
